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Dessert

Cinnamon Snaps

A sweet cookie made with sugar, lard, molasses, eggs, water, baking soda, cinnamon, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cinnamon Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and lard.

  2. Add the molasses, eggs, and water, mixing well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, cinnamon, and flour.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough into small balls and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Flatten each ball slightly and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Creams with the lard to add sweetness and help create a crisp, spreadable snap.
Lard
Creamed with sugar to add fat, tenderness and a crisp texture.
New orleans molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavour and browning, and gives the snaps their dark colour.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the dough and help the cookies spread and crisp.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the snaps together as they bake.

The step that matters

Flatten each ball slightly. Thickness controls spread and crispness. Balls flattened unevenly bake at different rates, so some snaps may burn while others stay soft.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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